Australia Day awards

[onetrack]

Well I missed out again, obviously because I couldn't organise anyone to put my name up for an award. But I see where David Elliot, who stubbed his toe on a dinosaur bone while mustering sheep, has got a gong for his dinosaur efforts, that have put Australia on top of the list for dinosaur fossils.

I found an Aboriginal grindstone once, I wonder if I could get a gong for that? I didn't even keep it, I handed it over to a local lady who collected that kind of stuff.

 

However, on the serious side, SWMBO and her ex-policeman brother are over the moon, as her brothers son (a senior police officer and detective) has scored himself an Australian Police Medal for his hard (and often dangerous) work.

Andrew Coen has been involved in a wide range of "baddies" apprehension, and at one stage was seconded to the DEA in the U.S.

I believe he was involved in the extraordinarily successful ANOM app takedown of a huge number of global drug dealers and gangs. Good on ya, Andrew!

 

https://www.police.wa.gov.au/About-Us/News/Australia-Day-honours-for-police

 

[willedoo]

3 minutes ago, onetrack said:

I found an Aboriginal grindstone once, I wonder if I could get a gong for that? I didn't even keep it, I handed it over to a local lady who collected that kind of stuff.

Don't know about a gong, but you could get a big bill for it. That's risky business these days since the various state's cultural heritage laws were introduced. Maximum fines are big; in Queensland $154,800 for an individual and $1,548,000 for a corporation. I think South Australia's laws were not retrospective, so if you possessed artifacts before the date of the legislation it's legal to possess them but not to sell them. In Queensland the laws are retrospective, so if your great grandfather found a grindstone in 1890 and you have possession of it, then you're liable to a fine up to $154,800.

[old man emu]

The word around my way is that if you find something on your land, you keep schtum about it. 

[onetrack]

Wow, that's pretty extreme. But I found the (broken half) of the grindstone back in the early 1970's, when there no cultural heritage laws - so I struggle to see how the authorities could make something an offence, 50 years after the act, when it wasn't an offence at the time.